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Loud blast as drone attacks Iranian defence factory – video

Drones target Iranian weapons factory in central city of Isfahan

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Attack appears to fit a pattern of strikes against strategic sites that have been attributed to Israel

A series of powerful explosions have damaged an Iranian government weapons factory in the central city of Isfahan, according to witnesses and footage from the scene, in what officials said was a coordinated drone attack.

The overnight strikes left flames billowing from a military industrial complex thought to be a production hub for drones and missiles that have been used across the Middle East and by Russian forces in Ukraine.

There was no immediate confirmation about who was responsible, but the attacks appear to fit a pattern of strikes against strategic sites across Iran that have been attributed to Israel in recent years. A fire erupted at a fuel refinery in the north-west of Iran at about the same time as explosions were heard in Isfahan, at 11.30pm local time.

Drones have played an increasing role in a shadow war being fought between Iran and Israel over the skies of Iraq and Syria, in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and even the eastern Mediterranean, where tankers have been set ablaze by both sides since early 2019.

However, the stakes have been highest in Iran itself, where Iran’s nuclear programme has been the target of repeated sabotage attempts. The country’s top scientist was assassinated in 2020 and the Natanz nuclear facility was struck one year later by a blast that damaged its centrifuges. The Karaj facility was struck the same year. An attack in 2022 damaged a drone facility, destroying at least 120 craft.

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Iranian officials claimed on Sunday that two drones had been shot down and another had inflicted only minor damage to the factory’s roof.

“There was an unsuccessful attack by small drones against a defence ministry industrial complex and fortunately with predictions and air defence arrangements already in place, one of them [struck],” Iran’s national news agency said in a post on Twitter.

“The air defence system of the complex was able to destroy two other drones. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack killed no one and minor damage was sustained to the roof of the complex.”

However, footage taken at the scene showed a powerful blast that was caused by either a secondary detonation or a more powerful payload than anything a drone could carry.

Israel is known to be training pilots of its most advanced jet fighter, the F35, for a possible attack on Iran. It has used the warplanes to attack Iranian interests in Syria, including deliveries of drone parts to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The attack comes at a deeply sensitive time for Iran, which continues to battle a homegrown uprising led by citizens who have turned outrage over the death of a Kurdish woman in custody four months ago into a rolling series of protests that have exposed the susceptibility of the autocratic state to sustained popular revolt.

At the same time, talks to revive a nuclear deal with the Biden administration have stalled as the country’s nuclear programme edges closer to the production of weapons-grade levels, a threshold Israel has vowed to prevent it from reaching. Tehran had agreed to limit its nuclear work in return for an easing of sanctions.

Israel remained silent on Sunday in the aftermath of the Isfahan attack, though the Jerusalem Post newspaper noted that “there are also few organisations globally besides the Mossad which are reported to have the advanced and surgical strike capabilities displayed in the operation”.

Iran has previously claimed that saboteurs were working to attack the military complex in Isfahan, and in July it arrested Kurds who it said had been working with Israel to prepare such an operation.

Since the start of the uprising, Iran has launched two rounds of ballistic missile and drone attacks into neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan, where it claims exiled Iranian Kurdish militias are stirring dissident acts at home. The Kurdish groups have denied any involvement in the protests.

Last summer, Iranian troops fired a salvo of missiles at a residence of a Kurdish businessman near Erbil, which it claims was being used by Mossad officials to direct drone attacks inside Iran. The Kurdish regional government strongly denied the claims and the house targeted appeared to have been empty at the time.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Diplomats fear growing power of Iranian factions that want nuclear weapons

  • UK, France and Germany refuse to lift sanctions on Iran under nuclear deal

  • Iranian envoy tells UK to stick to terms of nuclear deal and lift missile sanctions

  • UK to breach Iran nuclear deal with refusal to lift sanctions

  • Iran’s claims to have created hypersonic missile alarm Israel

  • IAEA chief qualifies claim that Iran will restore nuclear site monitoring

  • IAEA chief holds ‘constructive’ talks in Iran after uranium enrichment findings

  • Pressure on west to act grows after report on Iranian uranium enrichment

  • Positive signals from Iran over nuclear deal put west in a tricky position

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